Good Friday morning! Someone, somewhere, and at some time in this life has warned you about disturbing content. Probably the MPAA as you most often see it at the start of movies or in the little review capsules. What exactly is disturbing content? Of course, we know that it is a scene in a movie, or a paragraph in a book, or a picture in a gallery that causes a person to be disturbed. What disturbs you may not disturb me and vice versa. After the dinner last night, we watched the sequel to the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons. The author and screenwriters returned to the usual target, the Catholic Church. What makes the Church such a tempting target for so many writers and directors? Any institution that has been around for centuries and grown large might become a target for many to aim at. One of the great things about a country where free speech is upheld for the most part is that you and I can be insulted and offended in so many different ways.
If a performer or writer decides to pick on your particular branch of faith, or the entire Christian faith, you can have fun and be offended at the same time! The Catholic Church draws the 'fire' of many because it has been around for centuries, has hundreds of millions of followers, huge cathedrals, lots of money, and even its own country smack in the middle of Rome. Over the centuries, secrets have been kept and things declared off-limits, which all by itself would make for plot elements and wild guesses from the entertainment industry. We often feel the temptation to belittle the great and the mighty. Whether you agree with everything the Catholic Church believes or you don't, you must admit that the organization is among the great and mighty of the world.
Poking fun at the great and mighty can make for interesting entertainment, but it can be easy to go too far as well. We don't poke fun at God because we respect our Lord too much. How important is our respect for the Lord? In the ten commandments, the first three speak of respect for the Lord. The first is to keep the Lord first, having no other gods before Him. The second tells us that we are to make no idols or bow to them; for to bow down to an idol is to turn your back on the Lord your God. And third we are to keep the Lord's name sacred, not using it in place of 'ouch!' or "that makes me mad!" or any of the other casual uses we see and hear all around us. Respect for the Lord, our God, is of paramount importance to us. Does this mean we grab our swords when someone makes fun of our religion or God himself? No, actually the ten commandments don't say what we should do to others, the ten are all about what each of us is responsible to God for. Jesus told us what we are to do to others: love one another, and do to others what you or I would have them do to us.
When a Danish newspaper ran some cartoons that featured Muhammad, you will recall that some Islamic cleric basically issued a decree to kill 'em all. While something like that might make a person feel like a righteous defender of the faith, God had a different command. Vengeance belongs to me, says the Lord, I will repay those who deserve it. We are not to be an avenger of the faith, which is a much simplified version of what happened with those awful crusades back in the day, but we are to be ready to defend our faith.
Man, am I ever slow at getting the devotional out today... must have something to do with staying up late watching a movie last night. The sun is shining and the wind is calm for the moment, although I see some branches starting to move out there. Praise God for the nice rain last night! We need it in this area. I hope some went down south to help with the fires in Colorado. Have a nice weekend, I will pray for a bit less wind for us.
Bucky
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